Pray kneel for the channel that is #TOMBSTONES!

This is an IRC-driven channel for people to chat real-time with MAMEy people. Anyone's invited, but please be aware of the following conditions:

Newbies are always welcome. That means people new to chatrooms, new to MAME, new to newsgroups. That doesn't mean people new to the concept of manners or patience. It's a good idea to treat the chatroom like the newsgroup: lurk, meet some people, get to know them from a distance.
Repeated requests for assistance to find ROMs, either websites, FTP sites etc, will generally be frowned upon. There are plenty of ways to obtain ROMs, and numerous methods of finding them; if you can't be bothered to put in the effort of using a search engine to trawl the web or newsgroup archives, then you'll not be welcomed in #tombstones. There may be one or two kind souls willing to offer an answer, but don't push your luck.
Public disputes will not be tolerated - take it to Private Messaging (PM) or you'll be kicked from the channel. People want to chat comfortably; they can't do that while there's a full-blown fight going on next to them.

Connecting the Lazy way:

If you've got a Java-enabled browser, clicking one of the two images below will transport you magically into the channel under the name "tombstones1" - "tombstones9". An option bottom-right allows you to change this nickname.. or you can simply elect to keep it.

link to the light-skinned Javachat

Light skin - the default setting has dark text on a light background. Some colours (yellow, cyan) have been darkened to stand out, but most text is readable.

link to the dark-skinned Javachat

Alternative skin with light text against a dark background, more of a retro-feel.
Think Scramble, PacMan, Defender...

Using an IRC client:

(Note that a registered nick is required to join the channel - see lower down for details)
servername: (IRC server) irc.foreverchat.net
channel: #tombstones
Port Number: 6667-7000

To register your nick with Nickserv, use the following syntax:

/nickserv register password emailaddress

eg:

/nickserv register TopSecret me@myaddress.tombstones.org.uk

The server will then mail that address with details about finalising the registration process for your nickname.